Hate Crime: Arunachal MLA's son dies after being thrashed by shopkeepers

New Delhi: In yet another incident of targeting of people from the North-East India, An Arunachal Pradesh MLA's son died in New Delhi after he was allegedly beaten up by some shopkeepers following an altercation sparked by their taunts on his hairstyle.

Nido Taniam, son of Congress MLA and Parliamentary Secretary in Health and Family Welfare Department, Nido Pavitra, died on Thursday, police said.

Taniam, a BA first year student of private university, had gone to Lajpat Nagar with his friends on Wednesday last and was looking for an address when a person at a sweetshop started mocking him. Following this, fight erupted between them during which Taniam was assaulted with sticks and rods by eight men. Taniam died of injuries in his room in Green Park Extension on Thursday.

His relatives alleged that he had an altercation with some shopkeepers in Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi on Wednesday after they made fun of his hairstyle, following which they allegedly thrashed him.

Some locals intervened and the quarrel was stopped after which Taniam came back home. However, his condition suddenly deteriorated yesterday after which he died under suspicious circumstances, his relatives claimed.

"His postmortem has been carried out in AIIMS. The cause of death would be clear only after the autopsy report. There was some altercation he had on Wednesday, we are investigating the case," a senior police official said.

A youth claiming to be his cousin told a TV channel, "This is surely about racism. Everybody in Delhi discriminates against us based on our looks. We are living in India, but we don't know whether we are actually living in India or not.. every time we are discriminated against.

"His family has been informed," he said.

Arunachal Pradesh MP demands arrest of killers

Itanagar: Lok Sabha member from Arunachal Pradesh Takam Sanjoy on Friday demanded immediate arrest and trial of culprits involved in murder of a student from the state in New Delhi.

"Even after 48-hours of the incident the police failed to arrest the culprits involved in the crime, which exposed the discriminatory attitude of the people from mainland India towards the people of North East," Sanjoy said.

This is not a new incident.... several such incidents have been reported earlier where students of NE are victimised and we have taken adequate steps to sensitize the people ... Even I raised the issue several times in the parliaments," Sanjoy said while condemning the incident.

He said that he was shocked to learn that the Lajpat Nagar police delayed in registering the FIR and even did not arrest the culprits.

Meanwhile, All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU) and All Nyishi Students Union (ANSU) along with several other organisations of the state condemned the incident and demanded the Delhi government to arrest the culprits immediately and to punish them severely.